Australian Private Midwives Association: September 2012

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Review of the ACM Guidelines

The College (ACM) has announced a review of the ACM National Midwifery Guidelines for Consultation and Referral (2nd Edition) (2008)
If you do not have a copy, you can download a .pfd version here.

Readers who are members of ACM will have received a message about this review.

The review questions are:

Do you have any corrections or changes to be considered for the next edition?
Do you have any additions that should be considered?
Do you use appendix A?
Does appendix A work or how does it need changing?

The guidelines are meant for all midwives, so even if you aren’t a member of ACM, please put your mind to these questions.
The APMA response will address the questions with private midwifery practice in mind. Private midwifery practice has changed significantly since 2008, when the current version was published, for example:

All midwives who practise privately are required to have professional indemnity insurance
An exemption from the indemnity insurance requirement is in place until June 2013, and is expected to be extended to 2015, for midwives attending homebirths privately
Many midwives are now able to offer Medicare rebates for a range of antenatal and postnatal midwifery services.
A few midwives are offering Medicare rebates for intrapartum midwifery services in hospitals where they have clinical privileges/visiting access.
A few midwives have endorsement on the public register as PBS prescribers

"Endorsed as qualified to prescribe schedule 2, 3, 4 and 8 medicines required for midwifery practice across pregnancy, labour, birth and postnatal care, in accordance with relevant State and Territory legislation"(AHPRA)

Many midwives are enrolled in university studies that will lead to endorsement as prescribers.

Readers are welcome to make comments in relation to this review, either directly to ACM, or via APMA.

WHO ARE WE?

The Australian Private Midwives Association represents midwives in private practice. The association is focused on the safety of women, the ability of women to access quality midwifery care across Australia and the partnerships between women and midwives. APMA supports women’s choice in maternity options within a framework of quality and safety and believes in women being able to access midwives in all settings. APMA unites all midwives seeking to provide continuity of care for women.

APMA strives to provide midwives in private practice with information relevant to their practice and advocacy in the political process.

Enquiries:
Joy Johnston joy@aitex.com.au
Marie Heath NSW and National 0407 266004
Clare Lane (Vic) 0416 130219

APMA POSITION STATEMENT on PLANNED HOME BIRTHS WITH A MIDWIFE

1. We support home birth with a midwife in attendance for women who have uncomplicated labours. 2. We support and adopt the International Confederation of Midwives’ (ICM) Definition of the Midwife (2011), which is foundational to all midwifery practice, including homebirth. 3. We support the right of every woman to access a midwife as the primary maternity caregiver who works in partnership with the woman throughout the episode of care, who is able to be the responsible professional in attendance at the birth either at home or hospital, and who is able to make appropriate referral and transfer of care when required. 4. We support the right of a midwife to practise privately in a fee-for-service or funded relationship with the client, or to take up employment. 5. We support only those regulatory restrictions that are able to pass the ‘public interest’ test: “How does this promote health and wellbeing in the mother and baby?” 6. We support an expectation of equity, including equal pay for equal work throughout a midwife’s scope of practice. Midwives who provide primary maternity care are entitled to the same public funding, the same opportunity to charge a fee-for-service, the same access to hospital referral, and publicly supported indemnity insurance, as medical practitioners providing the same maternity services. 7. We support processes by which midwives are able to gain experience and mentoring in order to commence and demonstrate competence in homebirth practice. 8. We support seamless and reliable processes by which midwives are able to make hospital bookings for women planning homebirth, and arrange transfer to the hospital in a timely way when needed.